Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.

Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be used. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze this process is called the Rankine cycle. In the cycle, water is heated and transforms into steam within a boiler operating at a high pressure. When expanded through pistons or turbines, mechanical work is done. The reduced-pressure steam is then condensed and pumped back into the boiler.

In general usage, the term steam engine can refer to either the integrated steam plants (including boilers etc.) such as railway steam locomotives and portable engines, or may refer to the piston or turbine machinery alone, as in the beam engine and stationary steam engine. Specialized devices such as steam hammers and steam pile drivers are dependent on the steam pressure supplied from a separate boiler.

CN 6077

Canadian National Railways 6077 is a preserved 4-8-2 locomotive of Canadian National Railways U-1-f class, which were nicknamed Bullet Nosed Bettys.

Construction and initial use

6077 was built in 1944 as part of order of twenty locomotives classified U-1-f. These 4-8-2 or Mountain Type locomotives were built instead of the larger more typical 4-8-4 or Northern Type. The Northern type locomotives are larger and required more steel to make and during World War II a smaller more adaptable engine for general uses were needed. The U-1-f class locomotives were built in 1944 by Montreal Locomotive Works, and were numbered between 6060 and 6079. The series of engines were nicknamed Bullet Nosed Betty for their definitive nose cone.

1945 wreck

In February 1945, a month after its first run, 6077 was involved in a fatal wreck. Approaching Brantford, Ontario, 6077 was attached to a pilot engine when, sensing that the pilot locomotive engineer did not apply the brakes for a sharp bend up ahead, hit the emergency brakes. This caused all the wheels to lock up and skid which made the train much more rigid than if it had been rolling. As a result both locomotives derailed and drop down an embankment. The pilot engine crewmen were seriously injured but all head-end crew of 6077 were killed. The passengers on the rest of the train were not harmed because the wreck had detached the engines from the passenger cars which rolled on and came to a stop at the station.